ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Online solid-phase extraction liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry of hair cortisol using a surrogate analyte

Katarina Kostolanska, Lucie Novotna, Eva Taborska, and Ondrej Pes

Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

E-mail: ondramayl@gmail.com

Abstract: Online SPE LC–MS with ¹³C₃-cortisol as a surrogate analyte was developed, validated and applied for obtaining hair cortisol levels of 114 healthy volunteers. The first 3 cm from a posterior vertex position were analyzed as three individual segments resulting in 310 hair cortisol levels, which were used, after log transformation, to predict a range of values observed in future. The median value of hair cortisol was 4.76 pg/mg. The employed method allowed simple processing, high throughput and may be readily expanded to analyze additional steroid compounds in hair.

Keywords: Endogenous cortisol ; Long-term hair concentration ; Surrogate analyte ; LC–MS ; Online SPE 

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.1007/s11696-018-0560-1

Chemical Papers 73 (1) 151–158 (2019)